CONTACT/FOLLOW

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Synopsis: Nobody likes "The Complaints" -- they're the cops who investigate other cops. It's a department known within the Edinburgh police force as "the Dark Side", and it's where Malcolm Fox works. He's a serious man with a father in a nursing home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship -- frustrating problems he cannot seem to do anything about. Though Fox quit drinking five years ago, he thinks about it almost every day.

Then the reluctant Fox is given a new case. There's a cop named Jamie Breck, who everyone believes is dirty, but no one can prove it. As Fox takes on the assignment, he learns that there's more to Beck than anyone realizes -- dangerous knowledge, especially when a vicious murder takes place far too close to home.

In The Complaints, Rankin proves again why he is one of the world's most beloved and bestselling crime writes, telling an unstoppable story about evil, redemption, and who decides right from wrong.

Review: The Complaints is about one of the members of the Edinburgh Complaints and Conduct office (think Internal Affairs in the states), Inspector Malcolm Fox. Straight off a hugely successful case against a very corrupt police officer, Fox is asked by another division to investigate a detective for his possible embroilment with a child pornography ring. DS Jamie Breck, the suspect, is also the lead detective investigating the murder of a man named Vince, who is Fox’s sister’s boyfriend. Unfortunately for both Fox and Breck, these cases are not mutually exclusive and they find themselves in great risk – of losing their livelihoods and, more importantly, their lives.

Let me start by saying that I’d never read anything by Ian Rankin before this book. That being said, I’m not sure that this is the best book to start out with if you are trying to find a new author. Don’t get me wrong - the book was wonderfully written and the characters were well-fleshed out, but I had a little trouble understanding the dialogue (Scottish/UK slang words) and at times the story plodded along a bit slowly. Overall, it was a good book with plenty of mystery, intrigue, and shady characters.